English language

How to pronounce 521 in English?

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The Emirati airline, Emirates, has a reputation of being one of the best airlines in the world.
With their hub in Dubai in the Middle East, the airline can reach every corner of the world
making Dubai the ideal stopover for many travellers propelling Emirates to a global
leader in passenger air travel. Despite their reputation however, they have had one fatal
accident. And this of course depends how you want to define such statistic. But on August 3rd, 2016,
an Emirates Boeing 777 crashed at Dubai and so far, has been the only recorded hull loss of an
Emirates plane. -intro-
In the 2010s decade, Emirates began streamlining their fleet of aircraft.
By the time that 2016 rolled around, Emirates would primarily operate a fleet of Airbus A380
and Boeing 777 aircraft. The 777 like a lot of other planes has multiple variants. Emirates being
the largest operator of the Boeing 777 utilized multiple different variants of the plane.
The 300 model of the type is a stretched version of the previous 200 model.
The 300 would later go on to be developed further into the 777-300ER, by far the most popular
variant of the plane with over 800 300ERs built so far. The accident aircraft was involving the
more elusive standard 300 model where only around 60 units were constructed. The main
differences between the two is that the ER was built for Extended Range, hence the ER suffix.
That plane is also powered by the GE90 engines built by General Electric. The accident plane
was instead equipped with engines developed by Rolls Royce, the Trent 892 engines to be precise.
The accident 777-300 was delivered to Emirates in 2003 and had performed over 13,000 flights over
its thirteen years of operation. The plane’s final flight occurring on the morning of August 3rd,
2016. Emirates flight 521 from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai. The flight left the Indian city at
10:36am that day for the roughly 3 and a half hour flight to the Emirates.
The plane was being flown by two pilots. The Captain, an Emirati, was never officially named.
But what we do know is that the Captain was a man, aged 34, had just under 7500 total flight
hours logged and had been employed by Emirates for 15 years by the time of the accident.
We know a little more about the First Officer. The 37-year-old First Officer Jeremy Webb
was Australian. Interestingly he was actually more experienced than the Captain having accumulated
just under 8000 flight hours. Although the Captain had more hours in the 777.
The total number of occupants on board flight 521 when accounting for passengers,
pilots and flight attendants amounted to exactly 300 people.
This is a highly interesting case of an aviation incident as though the accident occurred in Dubai;
it was what transpired after the plane initially touched down on the runway
that is of interest. However we should back up a bit further than this for more context.
The flight was uneventful in its journey to Dubai.
There are two runways at Dubai’s main airport. Runway 30 Left and Right and 12 Left and Right.
The two runway’s lay in the center of the airport with the terminals and aprons either side.
Emirates Flight 521 was given an approach to Runway 12 Left on this day.
The Captain of flight 521 performed a briefing with the First Officer around an hour before
their expected arrival. In that briefing was a conversation about possible windshear on approach.
With this discussion they also discussed their go-around procedure.
The UAE’s Meteorological Authority had issued windshear warnings for all approaches into Dubai.
There was also a brief conversation about the two pilots’ personal experiences with windshear,
the First Officer stating they had last encountered the phenomenon 3 months prior.
Windshear in basic terms, is a significant shift in wind direction over a short distance.
As pilots often fly into the wind when landing, the change in wind can affect the
handling of an aircraft. It’s typically avoided if possible but modern planes can come equipped
with Windshear alerts on board to give pilots as much time as possible to act in that scenario.
The recorded weather information along with the fact that flight 521
was to land on runway 12 Left, would suggest that the pilots were landing with a Tailwind.
The recorded tailwinds were within limits for safe landing though. It was as you’d expect
it to be in Dubai in the summer, extremely hot, just under 49 degrees Celsius in fact.
The differences in the air between the desert and the Persian gulf contributed
to the windshear around Dubai airport. 8 minutes before the 777 was to land,
there were four other aircraft ahead of flight 521. Two of these planes had performed go-arounds,
the other two, both Emirates 777s did land on the runway safely.
A “go-around” is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an intentional
missed approach to fly another approach to attempt another landing. There are many reasons as to
why a pilot might want to perform a go around. These range from the pilot feeling the approach
is unstable to obstructions on the runway. It may be uncommon to the regular flyer, but the
procedure is safe and go around training is one of the most routine practices in pilot training.
The time was just after 12:30pm local time. Emirates Flight 521 was on its final approach
into Dubai. The landing gear was lowered and in configuring their plane for landing,
they selected 30 degrees of flaps and also armed the speed brake to automatically deploy
on touchdown. For passengers, the speed brake can be easily identified as the flap which
protrudes upward from the wing on landing. It disrupts airflow, significantly reducing
lift and is one of a few functions a modern airliner has to slow down on the runway.
At 12:36 and 22 seconds, while the plane was passing through just 700 feet, the on board
flight data recorder, recorded a significant change in wind direction from a headwind
to a tailwind. Eighteen seconds later, the plane passed through the decision altitude, the captain
confirms to his First Officer they were going in for the landing. The First Officer soon mentioned
to the captain that the tailwind was now 16 knots coming from behind them at 12:36 and 56 seconds.
The Captain still had a stable approach at this time. In fact it would seem as if the
final few seconds of the flight were normal as they flew over the runway threshold.
Then there was what is typically the final phase of a flight, the touchdown and flaring of the
aircraft. The time according to the Flight Data Recorder was 12:37 and five seconds.
The Captain pulls back on the control wheel to pitch the nose up as part of the flair maneuver.
A lot happens in the following seconds, so we’ll try looking at this on a step by step basis.
There was an eleven second period from roughly the start of the flair
to the first wheel contact with the runway. The automated altitude callouts were made down
to ten feet over the course of the next four seconds following the initial flaring. The
captain would struggle to put his plane down onto the runway as according to the accident report,
it took five seconds from the ten feet callout for the plane to reach a recorded altitude of 7 feet.
During this time the captain pulled slightly on the control wheel as normal in the flare phase,
but then pulled back further pitching the nose from 0.4 degrees to 2.6 degrees. The
Auto throttle setting had now changed from a speed governing setting to idle, bringing the
engines down to their lowest power setting. The time now 12:37 and twelve seconds.
The Captain push and pulls on the control wheel in a motion that assumedly was supposed to put
the plane on the runway. This was followed by a left roll input. The 777 had now passed
the aiming point on the runway now exceeding roughly 480 meters beyond the runway threshold.
A 12 knot increase in airspeed occurred and to quote the accident report on this.
“The Investigation concludes that the 12 knot airspeed increase was due to a horizontal
windshear as the wind shifted from a tail wind to a head wind component. The wind shift most likely
occurred as the aircraft was descending below 7 feet as this was when the Commander (Captain)
first felt the aircraft being affect by the environmental conditions.”
That last part is interesting of note, as it goes onto mention how the environmental
conditions in this case meant the hot air crated by the blisteringly hot runway
which was measured to have a recorded ground temperature of 68 degrees Celsius.
This hot air then rises from underneath the plane slowing its descent further. This would contribute
to the following increase in altitude. Important to remember that all of this is
happening as the plane is flying along slightly above the runway in that small window of time
from flaring the aircraft to when it should have touched down.
We should also now make note that the pilots had turned their attention away from the
primary flight displays to the view from their windows. This was actually in accordance to how
they were trained. The Flight Crew Training Manual notes a recommendation to pilots
to change (as the accident report puts it), change their visual sighting point
to the far end of the runway in order to control the pitch attitude during the flare.
All of this culminated in what pilots often call a “float”. The term speaks for itself,
a floaty landing is when the plane lifts up again usually unintended. In this case
the float lasted around 10 seconds before the right undercarriage landing gear
made contact with the runway. However the Captain had now made a decision, a decision to go around.
The Captain felt he just couldn’t put the plane on the runway even after he tried lowering the nose.
The Captain would also later mention that they were approaching the end of the touchdown zone,
so he thought it to be reasonable to make a go around and try the landing again.
The Take-off/Go-around or TO/GA switch was pressed.
It was supposed to change the auto-throttle setting but it remained in the Idle state.
The 777 travelled around 500 meters in a timeframe of around 6 seconds with the main undercarriage
landing gear on the runway. Initiating the go-around the pilots would seek to gain more
altitude. The plane would begin another climb at a rate of just over 500 feet per minute.
Air Traffic control gave the pilots an instruction to climb to an altitude of 4000 feet. This was
considering the engines were still in the idle position. Neither pilot had checked whether thrust
was sufficient for a go-around. It was not. The flaps were brought in to the 20 degrees
position and the nose slightly angle into the air. The landing gear having made contact with the
runway would activate an electrical signal which also caused the speed brake to partially deploy.
The First Officer confirmed the positive rate of climb and the Captain called for the landing
gear to be raised seemingly unaware the plane did not have the energy to climb.
Seconds later at an altitude of 85 feet above the ground, Emirates flight 521 would drop.
During this fall back to the ground the Captain would notice the position of the throttles and
then manually pushed them forward. The 777 soon crashed into the runway, the aft end of the
fuselage first. The right engine separated from the wing and the right wing itself burst into
flames. The 777 spun round to a heading of 250 degrees. The passenger cabin was largely intact
following the crash. This contributed greatly to the survivability aspect of the accident.
Once the plane came to a rest, the aircraft still had some electrical power,
and the Captain announced the evacuation over the PA system. 5 out of the 10 exits on the plane were
either blocked or were unable to be used. Most passengers escaped the plane from the aft doors.
The passengers themselves would later be criticized as countless videos emerged of
passengers inside of the plane trying to retrieve their belongings from the overhead compartments
instead of evacuating as soon as possible as they were instructed.
There is a rule in aviation safety. And that rule is that a passenger evacuation should in theory
take no more than 90 seconds to complete. The evacuation of Emirates Flight 521 took nearly 7
minutes. Roughly two minutes later, the center fuel tank exploded. If you ever find yourself
in this situation, you have a responsibility to leave your belongings, following instructions from
flight attendants and leave when you are told to, you may not have the same window of time as these
passengers and you might not be so lucky. Incredibly all 300 occupants on board the
plane survived, though 32 reported injuries ranging from minor to severe. Fatalities and
Injuries in this accident can also be found in those who tried to get the fire under control.
Several fire fighters suffered heatstroke and other injuries. One fire fighter died in
the rescue operation that day making the case of Emirates Flight 521 the first and currently only
fatal accident to occur at Emirates. Patreon Outro
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The Emirati airline, Emirates, has a reputation of being one of the best airlines in the world.

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How to pronounce 521 in English?

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